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Diabetes necessitates continuous self-regulation and behavioral management. Individuals with diabetes usually navigate disjointed care systems, manage stress, and need to maintain emotional balance. This often-invisible workload, overlooked by professionals fixated on numerical data, contributes to emotional distress in one-third of diabetes patients. Mental health scores are not reported by the majority of providers.This study aims to evaluate mental health and glycemic control in Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) patients through a hybrid care model (physical and digital engagement) to address challenges and guide multidisciplinary interventions.In a retrospective study of 89 patients with T2D who were managed by GluCare.Health for a year, coaches and a wider healthcare team (physicians, educators, dietitians) provided continuous engagement and support) both in-clinic and remotely (via an app). Three mental health measures were used: the World Health Organization-5 score (WHO-5), a self-reporting measure of mental well-being and quality of life, the Problem Areas in Diabetes Questionnaire (PAID) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ9), which detects mental illnesses. Paired sample t-test was performed for annual improvements. Significant improvements were observed across various parameters. Patients showed weight loss (-4.0 ± 5.3, p0.001), reduced waist circumference (-4.74 ± 7.8, p0.001), and lowered HbA1c levels (-1.00 ± 1.3, p0.001). Importantly, WHO-5 scores improved from 23.56 ± 1.1 at baseline to 24.60 ± 0.7 annually (+4%) (p 0.0001). Similarly, PAID score decreased from 17.46 ± 13.6 to 12.65 ± 9.2 (-28%) (p 0.0001), and PHQ9 decreased from 1.67 ± 1.4 to 1.18 ± 1.2 (-29%) (0.005). Hybrid care models for T2D patients can potentially improve biomarkers and overall quality of life. The potential of such continuous models can address the long standing mental health issues suffered by T2D patients that are usually not addressed under traditional, episodic care. Disclosure H. Zakaria: None. M. Caccelli: None. C. Ozkan: None. J. Debs: None. N.C. Dahlstrom: None. C. Rios: None. J. Bangayan: None. D. Divino: None. Y. Said: None. A. Hashemi: None. I. Almarzooqi: None.
Zakaria et al. (Fri,) studied this question.